UKC

Has anyone been to alpamayo in Peru? With jagged globe or adventure peaks? How was it?

In reply to nickhelm2013:

I've climbed alpamayo, though not with a guide. It was alright. Did the french direct. Straightforward, basically WI 3 the whole way up.

In reply to nickhelm2013:

I climbed it back in 2000 with a mate, up the Ferrari Route. It's a very beautiful peak, although I think it can get very busy.

Actual climbing in the runnel is quite straightforward, although were were avalanched on the path coming back down from the col to base camp the following day (big serac fell off above us). The following year the big serac at the top of the Ferrari came off, killing everyone on it I believe.

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In reply to SenorVivo:
The big accident on the Ferrari route was in July 2003. There were eight people killed in total, about 5 or 6 roped parties involved. It was a big serac came down above them, in unusually "hot" weather.

I was in the Quebrada Rurec at the time, we'd decided not to go to Alpamayo because a guide I work with out there in Huaraz had a bit of a bad feeling about it that year. "Un poco feo este año". There was a 50:50 chance the big collapse would have been the day we would have tried to summit.

Still, most years Alpamayo is a pretty straightforward and pretty safe for a Cordillera Blanca peak.... just don't go to Peru determined to climb Alpamayo no matter what.

In reply to Andes:

I climbed the Ferrari route in"96" with an American, as a preamble, to guiding it and I had a bad feeling about the very large serac/cornice overhanging the route, because it had not fallen it was presumed safe, when I reached the ridge my fears were founded there was a huge crack in it along the length of ridge, it is a bizzare feeling abseiling rapidly down, knowing full well that it could go at anytime, on a route considered objectively safe by many, particularily those earning a crust from guiding it and possibly a tad blinkered, there were also a couple of guys killed on the French direct, back in the eighties when a cornice fell.

I approached it with climb as quickly as possible and spend as little time in the fall zone as possible mantra, fully aware of the risk.